Georgia was the second country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion. According to the legend, Saint Nino of Cappadocia introduced Christianity to the Georgian people in 330 AD, although parts of the country around the Black Sea had already converted to Christianity two centuries before.
As the legend goes, Saint Nino bound a cross from grape vines with her own hair; Saint Nino’s cross has remained as a symbol of the Georgian Church (and can still be seen in Sioni Cathedral, Tbilisi). Georgia’s early adoption of Christianity had huge implications on how the future would have developed for Georgians, as it permanently oriented the country to the West, to Rome, and later to Europe as a whole.